VFAQ
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VFAQ. Virtual Frequently Asked Questions.
Why is the Default Username "user" and Password "changeme"?[edit]
Because 'technically' there is "no installation". Whonix images are pre-installed operating system images. The history of Whonix is that we started to ship downloadable VM images. What you might perceive as an installation process, for example VirtualBox import, is "not an installation". It is the same for any VM image that would be imported. There is no feature in virtualizers that would allow injecting code to do things at this stage. The code running for importing the images is solely by the virtualizer, and modifying that would be non-trivial and require maintaining a fork of the virtualizer. Adding such code to the operating system that hosts Whonix would also be non-trivial and operating-system-specific. It would require mounting and modifying the images. This is too unimportant to warrant any effort. It would probably result in more bugs and confusion than what we have now. I see Qubes (-Whonix) as the evolution of this, since there are no passwords there.
For further information, refer to this forum discussion: Whonix Installation from default password to user password
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Where are the 32-bit Whonix Builds?[edit]
Only 64-bit Whonix builds are available for download. This decision is based on the small number of affected users and the associated maintenance burden. To learn more, see: 32-bit or 64-bit?
Forum discussion: virtualbox has no installation candidate.
Why is KVM Recommended over VirtualBox?[edit]
In summary:
- VirtualBox does not meet the definition of Free Software;
- the parent company Oracle has poor security practices -- serious bugs have remained unpatched for an extended period; and
- significant VirtualBox functionality is only available as a proprietary extension.
To learn more, see: Why Use KVM Over VirtualBox?
Why is Qubes Recommended over other Virtualizers?[edit]
In summary, Qubes:
- runs a bare-metal virtualizer (Xen) and isolates hardware controllers and multiple user domains (qubes) in separate VMs that are explicitly assigned different levels of trust;
- has an advanced separation / least privilege design;
- provides better hardware and protocol protection than software compartmentalization;
- provides significant networking protection;
- allows advanced security features like Disposable VMs, secure copy / paste operations between VMs, secure copying and transfer of files between VMs, and sanitization of PDFs and images;
- can tunnel the whole system more easily through Tor;
- enables multiple Whonix-Workstation™ AppVMs to easily use the same Whonix-Gateway™ ProxyVM without being able to make contact with one another; and
- is easier to install and has better performance.
To learn more, see:
How can I be sure I'll like Whonix?[edit]
You cannot. There's a downside and an upside:
- On the downside, internet speed is slow (why?), a number of websites or services actively block Tor users (Bypass Tor Censorship), and using a Linux distribution has a learning curve (Linux User Experience versus Commercial Operating Systems).
- On the upside, Whonix has a solid ten-year history of providing Whonix Track Record against Real Cyber Attacks. See also What are the Advantages of Whonix?
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